Alanine And Arginine Rich Domain Containing Protein (AARD)

Aard is a functionally uncharacterized gene but is known to be expressed within the adult testis and XY fetal gonad. In humans, exons of AARD overlap with that of an unnamed uterus EST, whereas mouse Aard has no EST arising from the antisense strand. Northern analysis confirmed that expression of the sense transcript of Aard was testis-specific; however, Northern analysis of the antisense transcript showed laddered hybridization patterns for total RNA, but not for poly(A)+ RNA isolated from all samples. By comparison, both the sense and antisense transcripts (Aard-AS) were detected by ISH within a particular region of the seminiferous tubules, thus confirming that the Aard-AS is also expressed in the testis. In addition, Aard-AS was most likely located within the nucleus, whereas Aard was located within the cytoplasm.